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General Director David Gockley’s final season features some of his favorites: Verdi’s Don Carlo, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Janáček’s Jenůfa and a new production of Carmen. Secure your seats and subscribe today!

San Francisco Opera invites you and your family to attend FREE screenings of our Opera-in-an-Hour Movies presented throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn about where you can catch a screening of our family friendly operas, click here.

Tenor Brandon Jovanovich is no stranger to San Francsico Opera audiences. But in recent years, we have seen him transition from singing Puccini (Pinkerton in 2007's Madama Butterfly and Luigi in 2009's Il Tabarro) to Wagner (Siegmund and Froh in 2011's Ring cycle). In his biggest assignment with the Company yet, Jovanovich is currently singing his role debut as the title role of Wagner's Lohengrin. We asked Brandon a few questions about Lohengrin, his fellow cast members and his favorite things to do in San Francisco.

Much like baseball fans, we here at San Francisco Opera count down the days until the opening of the Fall 2012 opera season. But as we were strolling around the City, enjoying the last days of summer, we realized that San Francisco was practically tailor-made for the five fall operas. We found so many connections between our beloved city and the fall season that we had to share them!

Tenor Joseph Frank sings the role of Emperor Altoum in Turandot. Emperor Altoum is one million years old...and Joe Frank is not. It is makeup artist Timothy Santry's job to transform Joe before each performance of Turandot into a million-year-old Chinese emperor. But well before the first performance back in September, preparations were being made for this complicated transformation. Tim Santry started the look by creating a custom prosthetic face to be worn as a base for the look. We were there to capture photos of the process.

Kyle Brisby is a supernumerary in our current production of Handel's Xerxes. As one of several Super Wardens, he is required to silently walk, act and even move furniture around the stage with perfect timing. Of particular importance to this production, Kyle must look exactly identical to his other Super Wardens--all wearing black costumes with entirely white, bald heads. Photographer Michael Harvey took pictures of the entire process as makeup artist Lisa Patnoe transforms Kyle Brisby from a 21st century guy into a truly SUPER warden.

Introduction

Backstage at San Francisco Opera is a fascinating, fast-moving, mysterious and sacred space for the Company’s singers, musicians, dancers, technicians and production crews. Musical and staging rehearsals are on-going, scenery is loaded in and taken out, lighting cues are set, costumes and wigs are moved around and everything is made ready to receive the audience. From the principal singers, chorus and orchestra musicians to the creative teams for each opera, in addition to the many talented folks who don’t take a bow on stage, this blog offers unique insight, both thought-provoking and light-hearted, into the life backstage at San Francisco Opera.